“Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job,” he continued, adding that “the responsibility of the attorney general is to change things [and] bring us closer to the ideals expressed in our founding documents.”

Holder also said he is troubled by the affirmative action stance of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who opposes the policy in maintaining that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”